Activity 7

Although some of it feels like another version of Facebook or Myspace, Google+ could have some interesting uses, especially the hangout/chat feature.  However, without a webcam (which I don't currently have) the hangout seems less interesting.

Activity 6

Not sure about twitter as a useful tool yet.  I can see why it's fun and if you have a community of followers it might be interesting to tweet relatively often, but overall, it seems more time consuming than convenient.  As with many of my concerns at the start of this class and with web 2.0 in general, not sure that I have the time or will to make this a true part of my everyday experience right now, either professionally or personally.  Learning about a lot of potentially great tools, but for them to become useful and for me to become proficient (or perhaps more aptly, for me to be able to make them useful and not just a novelty) seems like it might take   more time than it is ultimately worth.  Still working at it...

Activity 5

Right off the bat, it is a bit disarming to have to sign in to each of these apps.  With the spread of information, how much is too much for allowing apps to "access your email or other information"? I'm also not a big fan of signing into an app using facebook.  Although I have a facebook account, I am not really a facebook "user" and thus don't really have an interest in letting others see what I'm doing.
Having said that, there are at least two of the downloaded apps that seem useful.  I love google dictionary.  The ability to highlight a word and then just click it for a definition rather than typing it into a website like dictionary.com is timesaving and quite useful.  Additionally, I can see a lot of uses for creately.  I'm often looking for an easy way to create a diagram or flow chart for my students to use as a mind map and this app seems far easier to do so than the unwieldy process of doing it in Word.  An app that could be useful but ironically will not be for me is todo.  While it seems like it can be helpful to keep all of ones tasks organized, my sense as I played with it was that I needed to be organized to use it.

Activity 4

The use of Google Docs has already become omnipresent in my classroom.  Students have created collaborative paragraphs building on each other's ideas as they write.  Additionally, I can easily see how a form can be created as a quiz rather than a survey.  Students would need access to computers or tablets to make it user friendly but it could certainly be a quick way to get a snapshot of understanding.  Finally, the revision history feature of google docs seems like a great tool in helping to teach students the process of revision and writing.  For me to be able to see how students edit and revise their work will allow me as a teacher to narrow in on the skills that they most need to work on.